Boss plays down Russell fears after derby victory

BATH head of rugby Johann van Graan reassured supporters that it was “only cramp” that forced him to replace Finn Russell before the end of their Gallagher Premiership play-off victory against Bristol Bears on Friday night.

- ALAN BROWN

The British & Lions fly-half kicked four conversions and two penalties in Bath's comeback win that sent them into next weekend’s final at Allianz Stadium Twickenham.

“Multiple parts of his body are cramping,” he said. “He put in some effort, I thought. His goalkicking was phenomenal, the chases that he put in too. He was still cramping in the changing room, but there’s no reason to suppose he won't be fine.

“It was amazing how many guys on both sides went down with cramp. It just showed the effort that both teams put in. We worked incredibly hard to get to this position, to get back to Twickenham.”

He added: “That's a Premiership semi-final for you. We knew this was going to be a tough game and we picked a 23 that we believed would get the job done. I thought at 34-13, we got some momentum, but Bristol are a good team. They kept attacking and it’s never dead on 34-20. It was some game of rugby. We knew that we were going to be stretched but we actually defended pretty well.